"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

A Congenital Liar For President? Would You Flee?

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I suppose the campaign could be he and Hillary whining that the other is the bigger liar. Or, maybe Paul Ryan's carefully laid plans to have himself declared the compromise salvation candidate-- salvation for the GOP, inasmuch as he saves the party from Trump, salvation for the country, inasmuch as he saves the country from Trump and Hillary-- is creeping towards fruition. This is what he told NBC's John Harwood: "You know, I haven't given any thought to this stuff. "People say, 'What about the contested convention?' I say, well, there are a lot of people running for president. We'll see. Who knows... "I don't see that happening," he said in the interview. "I'm not thinking about it. I'm happy where I am, so no."Yes, he was happy where he was when he successfully used the exact same strategy to become Speaker of the House.

Ryan will chair the Republican convention, and would become a leading prospect if delegates decided to turn to someone outside the current field.But at a moment of increasing urgency for the efforts by Romney and other prominent Republicans to block Trump, Ryan declined to categorically rule it out.

Nixon, a loathsome figure who was on posters that asked if you would buy a used car from this man-- was elected president, something that shocked progressives-- in November, 1968 and took over from Lyndon Johnson in late January, 1969. I don't remember when exactly I made my decision, but within a few months I had left the U.S. After he was forced from office in 1974 I started thinking about moving back, while I did a couple of years later. It was a good time in my life, driving from Europe to India-- spending time in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka (still Ceylon back then), Nepal... and then living in Innsbruck, Amsterdam and Berlin, vacations in Morocco, Spain, Finland, Paris, London... But, until last night I hadn't considered moving abroad again. Last night I started thinking about it, considering what it would take to sell my home in L.A. and buy one in Amsterdam.And, it turns out... I wasn't alone. A Morning Consult national tracking poll this morning about drug use. "Do you support or oppose legalizing Psilocybin mushrooms for RECREATIONAL use." I Had forgotten they were still around. 6% strongly support legalization, 8% weakly support it. 76% oppose it. 84% oppose legalizing LSD ("also known as acid") for recreation use. 86% oppose heroin legalization. Only 43% oppose legalizing marijuana for recreation use. I felt like I was back in the '60s.. There were 12 pages of questions about drugs ending with "which category do you think Methamphetamine should be classi􏰀fied as, schedule 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, not classified as a scheduled substance. Schedule 1 won-- 48%. But then, suddenly, the next question:

If Donald Trump were elected President of the United States in November how likely are you to consider moving to another country, such as Canada?• Very likely- 15%• Somewhat likely- 12%• Somewhat unlikely- 9%• Very unlikely- 56%

27%-- over a quarter of the population-- would consider emigrating to another country if Trump were to be elected president! Well... OK-- it's not that crazy. After all, who wants to live in a country where the people are stupid enough and hateful enough and so filled with self-loathing as to elect Trump? If you decide to make the move, scratch Afghanistan off the list. And the air is mighty polluted in Kathmandu, Nepal since I was there in 1971.

Oh, and don't think I'm the only one who has noticed Don Trump has a predilection towards untruth. Today he went on CNN today and threatened riots if he's denied the GOP nomination: "I think we'll win before getting to the convention. And if we're 20 votes short or if we're 100 short and we're at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400... I don't think you can say that we don't get it automatically. I think you'd have riots. I'm representing... many, many millions of people, in many cases first-time voters. I wouldn't lead it, but I think bad things would happen. After we win, I think a lot of feelings will be soothed." Right afterwards Alan Grayson sent an e-mail to his supporters bringing attention to Don Trump's "exceedingly attenuated relationship with the truth. Or, to put it more bluntly, he’s a liar. I could kill your entire day giving you examples, so I’ll limit myself just to these"

• Donald Trump said “I don’t know anything about David Duke,” two days after he disavowed David Duke’s support.• Donald Trump called Ted Cruz a liar for saying that Trump had discussed Libya. But Trump did – on Trump’s own blog.• Trump “heard recently” that unemployment in America is at 42 percent. Who told him that, a unicorn?• Trump’s first campaign ad supposedly depicted Mexicans swarming over our southern border. Actually, it was Moroccans swarming into Melilla, a Spanish enclave. Whoops!• Trump tweeted that 81% of all white homicide victims are killed by African-Americans. Actually, it’s 15%.• Trump said that “thousands and thousands of people were cheering” in New Jersey when the World Trade Center collapsed. Uh, no. Maybe Trump was thinking of the time the Giants won the Super Bowl.• Trump said that the Obama Administration is sending refugees to states with Republican Governors. Actually, the Administration doesn’t even decide this; private groups do.• Donald Trump says that he never said that Marco Rubio was Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator. But Trump’s website did.• Donald Trump said that there are 30 million undocumented persons in the United States. Actually, there are 11 million.• Donald Trump says that after U.S. forces liberated Kuwait, Kuwait never reimbursed us for the cost of the war. Actually, Kuwait paid $16 billion.

"If Donald Trump ever gets elected President," Grayson continued, "it will be a Reign of Error like we’ve never seen before. Expect long speeches on how he is so wonderful that he’ll make 2 + 2 = 7. Someone has to fight back, and that someone is me." It sure won't be Wall Street's errand boy Patrick Murphy.